Alec and the Inventor

A boy genius struggles with being a "weirdo".

There was once an old inventor who lived in large, gray, lonely house on the outskirts of a small suburban town.  The inventor had been married once, but his wife contracted disease, fell ill, and passed away.  The inventor missed his wife dearly, but found comfort in his son, Alec. 

Alec was a brilliant boy.  Some of the people in town called him a prodigy, a genius, a super intelligent math robot-that was what the boys at school called him.  Alec was a grade ahead in school and had trouble making friends.  The other kids knew he was smart, and even seemed to respect his intelligence, but they didn’t want to play with him.  “You’re a weirdo.” They jeered at him from across the playground. “You’re a weirdo like your weirdo dad.”  Alec hated being a weirdo.

“How was your day?” His father asked him upon his return home from school one afternoon.

“Horrible as usual.” Alec replied. “Nobody wants to be my friend.”

“Oh, Alec,” his father said, opening his arms wide to embrace his son, “don’t pay attention to those other boys.  Folks don’t always understand people like us.  They think we’re odd or different because we’re smart, and young boys can be the worst of bullies when you are a little different.  Trust me, I know.”

Alec did not hug his father.  He just sat down at his desk and went to work on his math assignment, which he finished in no time at all.  “I’m done Papa, will you check it?”

The old man took the Alec’s homework and looked it over quickly.  “Well done Alec. You’re teacher will be very impressed with this.”

After a short break playing catch outside in the yard, father and son made their way to the old barn on the backside of the house that served as the inventor’s workshop.  The building was full of the inventor’s old projects; everything from a self-automated lawnmower to a flying machine could be found inside, if one looked hard enough.  The inventor’s prize project though, was Barton, an infant sized android that was designed to grow as human children do, and live, and breathe, and move as humans do.  “I am building you a little brother, Alec.” The inventor told his son. “He will be just like the brother you might have had if your poor mother was still alive.  I miss her dearly.”

Alec was allowed to work in the workshop too; he had access to his father’s tools and equipment, as well as his nearly limitless resources.  Everyday Alec worked on projects in the old workshop, and everyday he hated it.  He kept this fact secret from his father of course, whom he knew would not understand.  He might even destroy Alec’s project, if he found out what it was.  Alec was building an electro magnetic pulse device, a ticking time bomb that would fry the circuits of all his father’s creations.  Alec knew that if he and his father weren’t constantly coming up with Zany inventions that people would treat them normally, and be nice to them.  He wouldn’t have to walk to school alone anymore, and the other boys would let him play baseball with them, and nobody would call him a weirdo.

So, day after day Alec worked diligently on his EMP device while his father painstakingly assembled Barton.  Alec was impressed with his father’s skill and ingenuity when it came to putting machines together. Alec himself was not as experienced or as clever, so he worked slower in order to get things done correctly.  In the amount of time Alec needed to build his EMP, his father had nearly finished Barton.

One day the inventor was walking through the workshop on an operational test run with Barton, when he stumbled across the EMP in Alec’s desk drawer.  Later in the day he asked the boy about it.

“Alec, what are you doing with an EMP device in the workshop? Do you realize the danger that poses to everything your mother and I built?” 

“Yes, Papa.” Alec said, angrily. “I know what it does.  I’m sick of being called a weirdo and a freak at school. How come we can’t just be like other people and live in a regular house and do regular things?”

“My boy,” the inventor answered calmly, “I know that things are hard for you right now, but that is no reason to throw away everything that you are.  You have a brilliant mind, which your mother and I gave you.  You are different from the other boys, but that does not make you any better or any worse than they are.  One day they will grow up, and they will stop teasing you. Trust me, my son, you will see.”

Alec did not care for his father’s words.  The old inventor did not understand.  Alec jumped on his father, and wrestled the EMP away from him.

“No!” the inventor shouted. “Alec, please, you will destroy the greatest thing your mother and I ever created together if you detonate the EMP in here!”

“All you care about is your stupid inventions!” Alec yelled. “You don’t see the way the world looks at us. You think they praise us, and look up to us like Einstein or something, but they don’t.  They hate us, and they are afraid of us.  They all think we’re freaks, and now you want to be Doctor Frankenstein and try to create a living robot.  Well I’m not going to be a freak anymore!”

With that, Alec detonated the EMP.  The inventor heard Barton’s processing chip explode and turned to see the infant robot’s metallic frame collapsed in a heap on the workshop’s concrete floor.  Next he returned his gaze to Alec, who had experienced a bit more than he bargained for from the EMP.

The inventor was distraught as gazed upon the rubble heap that his favorite invention had become.  He and his wife had worked so hard on Alec, and now he was no more.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reviews

[Marie]

Very good. he ending was perfect, though sad. I hope Alec's father was able to build a new boy--one who could accept being a genius and the consequences of it.

"You have a brilliant mind, which you got from your mother and I." In this sentence, I believe the "I" should be "me".

[Lina Grey]

Oh, the pains of fitting in with society. A very interesting little tale; reminds me of something from Aesop's fables. Well done. Thank you.

[Wendy Seames Garner]

Nice little story! I had a feeling your story would have a sad ending, but I almost thought Alec would be a banana.

[Craig2591]

Wonderful story! Great surprise ending! I like your whimsical style of writing, too.

I didn't find any errors except some of your paragraphs break a little oddly. But I suspect that happens during the upload. Every time I upload something to this site, I have to go back through and reset all of my paragraphs.